I share everyone's disappointment in the sound of the Varese CD. I can't help, in listening to it, feel that there is an earlier-generation source that could thrill us. Some of the sound is clear enough (like the woodwinds and tambourine in "To Scarborough") that it seems likely that lovingly remastered session masters could give us some sonic splendor.

I find it inconceivable that John Williams himself wouldn't, if necessary, provide some seed money to get one of his finest works in top shape. I've prayed to The Soundtrack Gods. Maybe I should pray to Lukas Kendall. This should be child's play compared to Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection. I bet Chris Malone would love a crack at this one.

I had the MCA lp and it sounded much better, not a good as Arista's FURY, but good enough. The cd, though, is just terrible, with all the high end rolled off and the low end boosted beyond all reason. I wonder in all seriousness if the deal to distribute the album on Varese was done and then the masters couldn't be located at MCA - it sounds like a commercial cassette tape was used as a source and then heavy EQ applied. That's entirely speculation on my part, and I have no idea what difficulties the team at Varese encountered, so I'm reluctant to blame them; none of the other MCA reissues of that time were as disappointing.

I can confirm that the sonics on the LP are not bad. The problem is that it's a subpar MCA pressing with the requisite ticks, pops, etc.

Yeah, this is at the very top of my Williams re-issue wants as well. A great score to a pretty underrated film.

It frustrates me that there has been no faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's excellent novel and the Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" really offended me by pretending to be the most faithful and aside from adding some usually omitted characters being TOTALLY unfaithful and also incredibly BAD -- I have no idea why so many people really like this movie. Keanu Reeves is a horrible Jonathan Harker. Even Anthony Hopkins gives a bad performance in it as Van Helsing...maybe the only bad performance I've ever seen from him!

And I love Gary Oldman but I really dislike his Dracula and I think Frank Langella did a great job (even though I'd prefer not to have a "sexy" Dracula as that's just all the post-Dracula vampire baggage...the Dracula in the book is just a terrifying monster and not physically attractive at any point).

The attractive Langella Dracula was the main point of the stage revival -- along with the wry pseudo-antiquarian designs by Edward Gorey. I think the film, caught between the competing goals of replicating a somewhat campy Broadway success and making a lavish horror film, fell flat on its face. I wasn't impressed by the score and didn't even care for the LP when I borrowed it from a library. But, yes, in the arc of Williams's great career, I do think this would be worth another listen. There's a version of the main theme on some Williams anthology that is quite impressive. What is it about Van Helsing? Anthony Hopkins may have been hammy, but he had nothing on Laurence Olivier in this one. Definitely belongs to the latter's "take the money and run" period.

I think I read somewhere that Badham wanted to release the film in black and white but the studio refused. Hence the DVD being so bland in color.....This film demands color! And we demand the entirety of the score!

Ah, I wonder which version? The full colour like I saw it at the pictures, or the drap, almost b/w like the DVD. I think it was the very early 90's when the director - did the deed. It looks so crude, probably Mr. Badham just wound out about 80% of the colour on a 1" video tape. I do agree that the film is nothing to write home about. The music on the other hand...

But I would buy a nice looking Blu...& like everyone else, I do hope the soundtrack is being prepped for release.

Yeah, this is at the very top of my Williams re-issue wants as well. A great score to a pretty underrated film.

It frustrates me that there has been no faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's excellent novel and the Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" really offended me by pretending to be the most faithful and aside from adding some usually omitted characters being TOTALLY unfaithful and also incredibly BAD -- I have no idea why so many people really like this movie. Keanu Reeves is a horrible Jonathan Harker. Even Anthony Hopkins gives a bad performance in it as Van Helsing...maybe the only bad performance I've ever seen from him!

And I love Gary Oldman but I really dislike his Dracula and I think Frank Langella did a great job (even though I'd prefer not to have a "sexy" Dracula as that's just all the post-Dracula vampire baggage...the Dracula in the book is just a terrifying monster and not physically attractive at any point).

Yavar

I agree. I think Badham's Dracula ages far better than Bram Stoker's Dracula save for a couple of scenes (Mina and Dracula is still pretty terrific as well as the prologue).

Soon we are going to read that John Badham is a better director than Francis Coppola...

Badham's film is good, and has very interesting moments (despite Langella's blow dry) but Coppola's is in a different league (even if indeed Reeves is terrible, which Coppola admits, too bad Johnny Depp was not hired as planned).

Soon we are going to read that John Badham is a better director than Francis Coppola...

Badham's film is good, and has very interesting moments (despite Langella's blow dry) but Coppola's is in a different league (even if indeed Reeves is terrible, which Coppola admits, too bad Johnny Depp was not hired as planned).

Bram Stoker's Dracula is borderline campy and unintentionally. Hopkins is no where near as good a Van Helsing as Olivier's and the screenplay by James V Hart is clunky as all get out (I like Hook in spite of its similarly incomprehensible script).

No Badham is not Copolla let's be clear on that. But everything was overwrought in BS Dracula. Two things I love about it were Oldman and Kilar's score.

Soon we are going to read that John Badham is a better director than Francis Coppola...

YES, John Badham is a MUCH better director than the Francis Ford Coppola who made what I like to call "BS Dracula". There are two Coppolas: the one who made great films like the first two Godfathers (I guess the third isn't all bad) and the one who made crap films like Dracula. Sure, there are touches in it where you can see the old Coppola brilliance but they are few, far between, and overshadowed by all of the HORRIBLE acting, script, and story...

Badham's film is good, and has very interesting moments (despite Langella's blow dry) but Coppola's is in a different league (even if indeed Reeves is terrible, which Coppola admits, too bad Johnny Depp was not hired as planned).

Coppola's is in a different league, indeed. It might be my most hated film of all time. It's just trash. I find it as offensive as the Star Wars prequels. And it'd be one thing if it was just the horribly miscast Reeves being terrible (Keanu Reeves as a brilliant British lawyer? Come on!) but he's far from the only one in the cast who's terrible. It's my least favorite Gary Oldman performance and probably the only terrible performance I've ever seen from Anthony Hopkins (I love both actors in general). The supporting cast isn't much better but hey I guess with that script they don't have much to work with.

Didn't know about Johnny Depp. He would've been interesting but he couldn't have saved the movie from its other problems.

I still think that the Dracula movie ownership, and the music publishing/performance rights, and the Deutsche Grammophon ownership are probably aligned corporately close enough to make this a go in short order, should the parties I've proposed want it to happen. To reiterate...

That's John Williams' Dracula, performed by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, on Deutsche Grammophon, the label that Dudamel and the L.A. Phil are already under contract to.

Now who else besides John Williams has to get in this casket to make this happen?

If Varese IS working on this Dracula, then we should wait for it. I only hope its not a limited edition set from the Varese Club series. It should be issued as a standard double cd set. And I wouldn't mind a re-recording of it too, which ever comes first!